On-Premise to Cloud Migration Step-by-Step Guide for Network Management

Cloud adoption has reached a tipping point — 98% of U.S. organizations have already migrated at least some business operations to the cloud. Global cloud spending is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025 as companies rapidly embrace off-premise solutions, with 63% of IT decision-makers reporting accelerated cloud migration plans over the past 12 months.

An on-premise to cloud migration of their network management allows companies to achieve enhanced network visibility, centralized control, scalability, and cost efficiencies. However, transitioning network operations, security protocols, and connectivity frameworks from on-site servers to cloud-based network management platforms requires extensive planning across people, processes, and technologies to realize benefits while minimizing disruption risks.

This guide explores the core fundamentals of network management migration from on-premise to cloud, including comparing infrastructure models, the step-by-step methodology for seamless migration, and profiling common migration approaches. We’ll outline key benefits and challenges, while also touching on provider selection factors, transition sequencing, testing procedures, and more.

What is the difference between cloud migration and on-premise?

On-premise infrastructure refers to computing hardware, servers, networking equipment, data centers, software, and other IT infrastructure hosted on a company’s own physical premises rather than in the cloud. With on-premise infrastructure, your business owns, maintains, and secures all of its own computing resources, including network management systems and components.

In contrast, with cloud computing infrastructure, computing resources like servers, data storage, databases, networking, analytics, and intelligence are hosted by a third-party cloud service provider (CSP) like AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. Resources are provided to customers on-demand over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis, allowing for easy scalability of network infrastructure alongside other services.

Some major differences between on-premise vs cloud network environments include:

• Location of hardware: With on-premise, all networking hardware is housed in your facilities. With cloud migration, most core infrastructure moves to the CSP’s data centers, though some physical network components (routers, switches, access points) typically remain on-site to connect to the cloud.
• Maintenance and updates: With on-premise, your IT team handles all network maintenance, firmware updates, and configuration management. In a cloud model, the CSP handles much of this for cloud-based network components, while on-site equipment still requires local management.
• Scalability: Scaling on-premise requires purchasing and provisioning new hardware. Cloud infrastructure is designed to scale seamlessly through the cloud provider.
• Cost structure: On-premise requires major CapEx investments plus ongoing OpEx. Cloud utilizes a flexible pay-as-you-go OpEx model.
• Security and compliance: Cloud providers invest heavily in state-of-the-art physical and application security and compliance. Standards vary greatly for on-premise infrastructure.

Types of cloud migration 

There are a few approaches you can take when performing an on-prem to cloud migration. Cloud networking — the virtual network infrastructure that connects cloud resources — will be affected differently depending on which approach you choose. Common migration types include:

Lift and shift migration

With lift-and-shift migration, you move applications, data, network configurations, and other components from on-premises systems directly to infrastructure as a service (IaaS) in the public cloud or a hosted private cloud with few or no changes. This is the quickest and easiest migration option for network infrastructure.

Since applications and network services aren’t optimized for cloud environments with lift and shift, it provides lower cost savings compared to alternatives and limits some cloud benefits. But it allows you to get applications and their supporting network architecture to the cloud faster. It’s a good short-term option or the first phase of a longer migration.

Replatform (Optimized shift)

In a replatform migration, you make a few changes to optimize applications and network configurations to run better on cloud infrastructure but don’t make major code changes. This involves elements like modifying how applications interact with networks, implementing cloud-based firewalls, or leveraging managed load-balancing services.

Replatforming balances faster migration speed with unlocking some cloud optimization like network scalability, traffic management, and cost benefits. Applications realize improved performance with enhanced network capabilities, and you avoid having to rebuild network architectures completely.

Refactor (Re-architect)

Refactoring (re-architecting) applications for the cloud involves rewriting portions of application code and redesigning network architecture to optimize them to utilize cloud-native features. This allows you to design apps and their network infrastructure specifically for scalability, elasticity, redundancy, dynamic bursting, and other key benefits the cloud provides over on-premise.

The extensive coding and network configuration changes require rebuilding applications and their connectivity from scratch using cloud-native features. This makes refactoring the most complex and lengthy migration option, but it allows you to take full advantage of the benefits that cloud platforms provide if designed properly.

Rebuild (Cloud-native)

In some cases, businesses choose to simply rebuild applications completely from scratch using cloud-native development principles rather than migrate existing applications. This may apply to legacy apps with complex network dependencies that would be difficult to extend to the cloud.

Building cloud-native allows the highest optimization for cloud platforms, network services, and costs, along with the ability to use the latest languages, frameworks, and network management tools. However, IT teams face high costs, lengthy development cycles, and complex network redesigns with rebuilding everything from ground zero.

Benefits of migrating your network management to the cloud from on-premises 

Moving infrastructure, applications, data, network architecture, and other business elements from on-premise data centers to the cloud provides a long list of benefits, including:

• Increased scalability: Cloud network infrastructure allows businesses to scale computing, networking resources, and storage needs up or down on demand to accommodate surges in traffic and workload demands. Staying on-premise requires purchasing increments of physical servers whenever capacity thresholds are met.
• Improved accessibility and faster performance: Employees can access cloud-based apps and data seamlessly from anywhere. Cloud providers have high-speed networks, advanced routing capabilities, and bandwidth to power consistent, low-latency global application performance.
• Heightened data security: Major cloud providers implement state-of-the-art physical security as well as access controls, data encryption, perimeter defenses, software-defined networking (SDN), network security mechanisms, and robust incident response capabilities exceeding most on-premise environments.
• Lowered costs: The cloud employs a pay-as-you-go pricing model with no CapEx expenditures required upfront. Businesses pay only for the cloud resources and services they use without wasted overprovisioning.
• Increased business continuity and quicker disaster recovery: Cloud platforms utilize instant failover clustering, network redundancy, and resilience mechanisms across multiple geographic regions, minimizing disruption threats from localized disasters or outages.
• Operational efficiencies: Cloud providers manage the maintenance, uptime, and daily operations of data centers, servers, networking equipment, and security. This allows companies’ IT teams to focus on innovation that differentiates the business.

10 on-prem to cloud migration steps 

Migrating your network management from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud successfully requires careful planning and execution. Here are the ten key on-prem to cloud migration steps to follow:

Step 1: Set your network migration goals 

The first step is to clearly establish the key business goals driving your cloud network migration. Without them, your network management transition risks becoming a rudderless, expensive journey. Network management migrations touch critical connectivity infrastructure, so you can’t afford ambiguity.

Begin by asking what specific network management pain points you’re solving. Are you struggling with manual configuration processes, visibility gaps across distributed environments, or security policy enforcement? Perhaps you need centralized control planes, automated alerting, or unified management across hybrid environments.

Document these priorities explicitly, whether it’s reducing network provisioning time from weeks to minutes, gaining real-time traffic analytics, or implementing consistent security policies. These defined goals will help you evaluate vendor solutions, create success metrics, and maintain focus when technical challenges inevitably arise during your network management migration.

Step 2: Map your current network infrastructure 

Understanding your network’s current state is crucial before moving management to the cloud. Without this detailed inventory, you risk disrupting critical connections or missing security requirements during migration.

Thoroughly catalog your existing network infrastructure to create an invaluable reference guide for migration planning. Interconnections between routers, firewalls, load balancers, VPNs, and network monitoring systems often accumulate haphazardly on-premises over the years. Your assessment process will surface those undocumented interdependencies, highlighting downstream impacts of migrating specific network management components.

You’ll want to map precise details on traffic patterns, bandwidth requirements, latency dependencies, security protocols, and business priority levels for each network management segment. This data informs your staged rollout plans, helping your team identify quick cloud-ready management tools versus components requiring deeper re-architecting.

Step 3: Develop a strategic cloud migration plan 

A clear network management migration strategy is essential because without one, you risk disconnecting critical systems, creating security vulnerabilities, or failing to capture the full benefits of cloud-native networking tools. A well-defined strategy serves as your roadmap through complexity.

With your business goals clearly defined and the current-state complexity mapped, outline specifically how each network management component will transform – whether through quick lift-and-shift, adoption of cloud-native networking services, or a hybrid approach. Plan the migration in carefully sequenced waves to prevent critical management paths from moving simultaneously, which could leave you flying blind.

You’ll need to detail how routing configurations, security policies, and access controls evolve as legacy network management tools retire. Your architecture should leverage cloud advantages such as auto-scaling monitoring, centralized management consoles, and software-defined controls while maintaining comprehensive visibility into your infrastructure.

Step 4: Audit your application and data inventory

Why conduct a thorough network audit? Because understanding your complete network ecosystem prevents migration failures that can cripple your business operations. Your network management tools interact with countless applications and services, and missing dependencies can lead to catastrophic blind spots in your cloud environment.

Begin by mapping all network monitoring touchpoints, traffic flows, and security inspection points. Document which applications generate the most alerts, where your bandwidth bottlenecks occur, and how your current tools monitor mission-critical services. Pay special attention to how your network management systems handle sensitive data subject to HIPAA, GDPR, or PCI DSS, as cloud-based monitoring often requires different compliance approaches. These insights will guide your migration sequencing and help you maintain visibility throughout the transition without compromising security posture.

Step 5: Select the right cloud platform for your network 

Selecting the right cloud service provider is a pivotal decision that directly impacts your network management capabilities, operational efficiency, and long-term success. Your choice will determine not only costs but also the networking tools, security features, and connectivity options available to your organization.

Begin by conducting an in-depth evaluation comparing offerings, service levels, pricing models, and benchmarks of major enterprise cloud providers. Weigh factors like global infrastructure breadth, network management features, private connectivity options, software-defined networking capabilities, and specialized network services.

You should determine the ideal platform for hosting migrated network management workloads based on your specific requirements, bandwidth needs, latency sensitivity, and compliance rules. For mission-critical network infrastructure, consider visiting provider data centers and meeting the network operations teams who will support your environment.

Step 6: Model the new cloud architecture

Understanding where you’re headed is essential before migrating your network management tools to the cloud. Why model your architecture first? Because this blueprint serves as your shared vision, prevents expensive mid-course corrections, and ensures your cloud network management solution will scale with your business needs.

Begin by mapping out where your network monitoring, configuration management, and security tools will live in the cloud environment. Determine which components need public, private, or hybrid cloud placement. Document the geographic regions and availability zones that will support your global operations. Define your VPCs, subnet architecture, and IP addressing schemes for management tools. Plan your management plane connectivity, including secure VPN tunnels between cloud and on-premise environments. Outline security boundaries and how you’ll leverage cloud-native capabilities for monitoring redundancy and disaster recovery.

Step 7: Plan your network migration execution 

Planning how you’ll shift your network management tools to the cloud is critical to your migration’s success. This step creates your roadmap, preventing costly mistakes, minimizing downtime, and ensuring business continuity throughout the transition.

Map out a detailed, sequential playbook for migrating your network management platforms to the cloud. Include:

• Priority order for migrating interdependent monitoring systems
• Practical batch sequences broken into manageable portions
• Specific procedures for tool shutdown, configuration backup, and cutover
• Contingency plans for automatic rollback if network visibility is compromised
• Security measures to protect network data during transfer
• Validation testing protocols before decommissioning legacy tools

Consider starting with a pilot migration of a non-critical network segment before attempting a full transition. Allow time for stabilization post-migration, and maintain parallel systems until your cloud network management tools are fully validated.

Step 8: Prepare and configure your cloud environment 

You need to establish your cloud network environment first because it creates the essential foundation for migrating your network management tools and control systems. You’ll then be able to smoothly transition your monitoring, security, and traffic management capabilities. 

Begin by provisioning virtual private clouds, regions, resource groups, and secure VPN connectivity that mirror your on-premises network architecture. This strategic approach allows you to transfer network management components, such as subnets, route tables, and security groups, without significant redesign. 

Configure cloud-based network monitoring solutions, traffic analysis tools, and security policy frameworks to properly receive your migrated management workloads. Taking time to validate network connectivity paths, security group configurations, and access controls within your cloud environment significantly reduces troubleshooting headaches during the actual migration of your network management systems.

Step 9: Migrate network applications, data, and services 

Understanding how and when to transition your network management tooling is crucial to maintaining visibility and control throughout migration. This phase represents the practical execution of your preparation work, converting plans into tangible progress while ensuring network operations remain stable.

With your cloud environment established and baseline network monitoring functionality tested, begin selectively shifting network management applications using your chosen migration methodology. Sequence ordered waves of workload migration from simple monitoring tools to complex network analytics platforms, leveraging containerization or cloud-native networking PaaS capabilities for maximum flexibility and scalability.

Follow detailed runbooks for smoothly transitioning legacy network management systems to cloud-based equivalents via optimized configuration exports and imports. Continuously validate security posture, visibility, and performance of network segments spanning both environments as interconnections evolve.

Step 10: Validate, optimize, and adapt to the cloud 

Post-migration validation is your critical quality assurance checkpoint. Even the most carefully planned network management migrations can encounter unexpected behaviors in the cloud environment. Therefore, by systematically testing your migrated network management tools and processes, you’ll identify issues before they impact operations and establish confidence in your new cloud infrastructure.

After each network management transition wave, thorough user acceptance testing, performance evaluations, and security validations should be conducted. Compare cloud-based network monitoring response times with your baseline metrics. Additionally, work directly with your cloud provider’s network specialists to optimize traffic routing, firewall configurations, and management tool integrations. You can then continuously refine your network management approach by leveraging cloud-native capabilities like automated scaling, centralized logging, and API-driven configurations that weren’t possible on-premise.

Remember, cloud network management isn’t a “set and forget” endeavor—it’s an iterative process of continuous improvement.

On-prem to cloud migration challenges 

Despite immense benefits, migrating your network management system from on-premise to the cloud comes with distinct challenges, including:

• Data security and compliance risks: As applications and sensitive customer data move from the relative safety of on-premise servers behind corporate firewalls and security mechanisms to the public cloud, businesses take on some additional privacy and security considerations. IT leaders must verify that cloud providers have the appropriate controls and protections in place. With Auvik, you don’t have to worry about compromising your network security, as our SOC 2 Type II certified platform employs enterprise-grade encryption, robust access controls, and regular security audits to keep your network data protected.

• Integration complexity: Seamlessly integrating migrated applications with essential back-end systems that remain on-premise requires planning. IT teams must meticulously evaluate all inter-system dependencies and plan how these touchpoints will continue functioning post-migration. When using Auvik, integration complexity is virtually eliminated thanks to our pre-built connectors for popular IT platforms, open APIs, and webhook support that seamlessly fit into your existing technology ecosystem.

• Potential performance issues: Applications designed for on-premise servers may perform inconsistently if not optimized for cloud infrastructure. Latency-sensitive systems might face performance degradation without thoughtful architecture planning. Conducting load and performance testing helps minimize disruption. 

• Initial bandwidth costs: Although the cloud cuts overall IT costs long-term, the initial bulk transfer of gigabytes or terabytes of on-premise data into cloud platforms consumes extensive bandwidth, which providers typically charge for. Some very large datasets may be more cost-effective left on-premise if accessed infrequently. Auvik makes it so that you don’t have to worry about excessive bandwidth costs, as our lightweight collectors efficiently compress data and use bandwidth-optimized protocols to minimize network impact during deployment.

• Platform lock-in: If applications migrated to the cloud leverage proprietary features or technologies provided by the chosen cloud vendor, it can create reliance on that specific platform. IT leaders should architect systems for interoperability and ease of transfer across cloud providers when feasible. With Auvik, you don’t have to worry about platform lock-in, as we support 700+ device vendors, offer comprehensive API access to your data, and maintain a vendor-neutral approach that preserves your freedom of choice.

• Change management: Business leaders must plan for the cultural shift among employees accustomed to legacy on-premise systems as new cloud platforms are adopted post-migration. Training and clear communication are essential. Unless stakeholders understand proper access methods, data locations, enhanced capabilities, and security policies, adoption can suffer. 

Switching to a cloud-based network management solution has never been easier with Auvik 

Switching from on-premise to a cloud-based network management no longer means risk or uncertainty, thanks to solutions like Auvik. Purpose-built to run seamlessly via the cloud, Auvik provides unified network visibility and management across cloud components from a centralized dashboard. 

With robust network documentation, unmatched visibility into devices, deep network mapping intelligence, and strong automation capabilities, Auvik allows IT teams to safely migrate network management to the cloud while avoiding potential disruption and loss of capability.

For organizations currently using on-premise solutions like SolarWinds, our SolarWinds to Auvik Migration Guide provides a detailed roadmap for a smooth transition.

By leveraging Auvik for cloud-based network management, infrastructure leaders remain empowered with the tools and insights needed to deliver ongoing network optimization, security protections, and operational efficiency as the business evolves.

Get started with Auvik today – schedule a demo or start a free trial to experience the difference.

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